Procter & Gamble issued a RFP proposal for their Pantene Europe website redesign initiative amongst several design agencies, including Mindtree. My role on the Mindtree RFP team was to lead, envision, and pitch a creative concept for the new Pantene website within a 3 week timeframe. We focused on prioritizing and designing for mobile since this platform accounts for 75% of user traffic. My team won the RFP proposal, and consequently, worked with our delivery team to successfully implement and launch the new Pantene Europe website.
Creative Direction I led Mindtree's creative direction for the Pantene website redesign, re-envisioning branding, storytelling, imagery, sample content (tutorials and hair advisor), product ads, and look & feel.
UX Strategy I formulated a plan for UX research to be carried out by my colleague Camilla Giuletti, extracted insights, and aligned with team on a cohesive narrative.
UX/UI Design As the sole designer on the team, I brought the creative vision into reality by establishing information architecture, wireframes, mockups, and high-fidelity prototype as a RFP proposal deliverable.
UX Copywriting I created copywriting for headlines, paragraphs, tutorials, advertisements, registration, and campaigns to provide examples of a welcoming voice tone to engage users.
Pitch Presentation I pitched the redesign approach and creative direction, demonstrating a prototype demo walkthrough with Pantene stakeholders. I also wrote a pitch script for my European counterparts to pitch the same message in their respectiv languagese throughout other European countries.
Regardless of what a project entails, I believe in holistically assessing the client's current state. It is not enough to just hear about their side of the story - understanding their users' psychology and behaviors enables us to discover new opportunities. Although we had limited time on this proposal, we maintained our user-centric approach; I led the research strategy and crafted an interview script for my colleague Camilla to use when speaking with users. Since our target audience were young females, we focused on millenial and generation Z age groups. Insights were then extracted from Camilla's six interviews, as shown below.
After conducting user research, I assessed the existing mobile site to identify messaging gaps, branding inconsistencies, and redesign opportunities. Below are screenshots of the site, and my critique.
Inspiring Everday Stories Audiences have learned to look past the "perfect" model persona with the voluminous, silky hair. They are more interested in hearing about authentic experiences from "real" people. The new website should share human-centered stories.
Your Personal Hair Advisor Enable personalized experiences for users based on their hair type and condition. The site should help determine user needs, and recommend advice and relevant products.
Engaging Homepage Narrative It is important to capture audience attention immediately. Since users are accustomed to scrolling on websites and mobile, having a logical narrative will encourage them to either click on the content, or continue scrolling to view the rest of the Pantene homepage story.
Ethical & Responsible Values Today’s consumers care about a company's social, environmental, and sometimes even political stance. Boldly declaring Pantene's values will strongly resonate and promote the brand.
Google of Hair Care" Enable the website to have an optimal "search engine" to display relevant and educational content. This is espcially important since we are promoting Pantene's Hair Advisor functionality.
Omni-Channel Content Since social media is widely prevalent in millenial and generation Z culture, displaying trending and hashtag content through a RSS feed on the Pantene site would foster relevance and fresh content.
Since the Millennial and Generation Z demographics are conscious of purchasing healthy, safe, animal-cruelty free, environmentally-friendly, and socially responsible products, Pantene needs to emphasize a brand story that is congruent to these values. Below are my early sketches conveying this narrative.
After validating this new narrative concept with Pantene stakeholders and users, I explored different visual representations. Since this was a redesign RFP proposal, I made notable branding changes, while staying consistent with Pantene's style guidelines. My concept designs below contributed to my team's RFP proposal win, and set direction for the delivery team.
My strategy was to immediately connect audiences to hair needs they can relate to, and position Pantene as an empowering brand. Users can learn about stories and testimonies of real people who have benefitted from Pantene.
After viewing testimonies, users can explore and identify products that are right for them through a questionnaire. If they decide to continue scrolling, they are presented with another opportunity for personalization through the 'Personal Hair Advisor'. If they skip this as well, 'New Collections' will be highlighted to inspire further browsing.
The Hair Advisor feature provides users with personalized experiences and content catered to their needs. Below are examples of some questions. Additional questions (not shown) may include hair type, length, and wash frequency. After completing the questionnaire, they can either view results immediately, or create an account to save their preferences. The results comprise of hair care tips, video tutorials, and relevant product recommendations.
If users scroll past 'For All Your Hair Needs', 'How to Care For Your Hair Type', and 'Explore Our New Collections' sections, different product lines will appear to hone in on specific products. I redesigned these ads, 'freeing' the product images from rectilinear boundaries, adding shadows for a more tactile and inviting impression, and mottos for marketing messaging.
Besides offering personalized recommendations and different product lines, Pantene would benefit by communicating their values, diversity and inclusivity, and support for social causes that resonate with the public.
The footer, menu and search functions provide more opportunities for interaction. A friendly-looking footer encourages user browsing and sign-ups for emails and newletters. Including a user profile in the menu helps to increase retention and usage. Having a mini 'search engine' and FAQs within search enables better content discovery.
This Pantene site rebranding and redesign project is one of my favorites, as it required consideration for content strategy, recommendation system, in-site search engine, storytelling, product positioning, social engagement, and CRUD (create-read-update-delete account and info) functionality. It has been very rewarding winning this RFP proposal, and is a testament that comprehensive research, ideation and design can be achieved within only 3 weeks. I am proud of our delivery team for translating my concepts into the launched UK and European websites.
